1. PR7 Me and My Movies
My chosen genre is Romantic Comedies the first film Iāve chosen is 10 things I hate
about you, the films directed by Gil Junger and its year of production is 1999, the film is
about a new student at Padua High named Cameron James (Joseph Gorden-Levitt) he
gets given a tour of the school by Michael (David Krumholtz) who becomes his best
friend, during the tour Cameron sees a girl names Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) he
then finds out she cant date anyone until her older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) does, Kat is
completely different compared to her sister she keeps her head down, unlike her sister
who loves the attention from everyone and is the most popular girl in her year, Cameron
knowing this now makes it his mission to find someone for Kat so once sheās dating
someone he can try and date Bianca, Cameron choices Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger)
he asks him to get to know Kat, this then moves onto Patrick actually liking Kat and
Cameron gets his chance with Bianca.
The second film Iāve chosen is Sheās The Man directed by Andy Fickman and its year of
production is 2006, the film is about a girl named Viola Johnson (Amanda Bynes) who is
on the girls football team which might not last long due to the coach at the school telling
them they cant continue with the team, Viola is not happy about this and tryās to join the
boys team which she is quickly shut down and told that girls cant play football, she then
comes up with the idea to disguise herself as her twin brother Sebastian and goes to the
rival school Illyria boys football team and makes it on the team, she ends up in a shared
room with Duke (Channing Tatum) she gets to know him as Sebastian and ends up
really liking him, but Duke had fallen for a girl named Olivia, whilst this is going on Olivia
is falling for Sebastian who is actually Viola, now to make matters worse Violas brother
is coming back from London early and arrives at the campus without knowing his sister
has replaced him.
My third chose is Sixteen Candles, this film is directed by John Hughes and its year of
production is 1984, this film is about a girl named Samantha (Molly Ringwald) who
wakes up on her 16th
birthday but all her family has forgotten, her sisterās wedding is
coming up so everyoneās mind is occupied by the planning, Samantha really likes the
older senior boy named Jake (Michael Schoeffling) her day continues to get worse she
finds out her grandparents are staying over for the wedding and take her room also bring
an exchange student from china to stay over as well, the geeky freshman (Anthony
Michael Hall) who continually tries to get with Samantha, she ends up catching the
attention of Jake and every time they get a chance to talk something gets in their way.
3. Intertextuality in 10 things I hate about you is that itās based off of The Taming Of The
Shrew by William Shakespeare the film title is actually supposed to also sound like The
Taming Of The Shrew when you say it there is also a lot of references to Shakespeare
like last name Verona is used in Romeo and Juliet as the setting, also the character
Michael is a fan of his work and uses this to get to know a girl in the film who is Kats
friend in the film they dress up in costume for a dance as characters from his work, also
quotes are used with slight changes to make them more modern. My other chosen film
Sheās the man is an adaptation of The Twelfth Night a comedy by William Shakespeare,
character names are used from the Twelfth Night like Duke (Channing Tatum) is taken
from The Duke of Illyria from Twelfth Night, also Olivia is used in both and Sebastian in
Sheās the man who is Violas disguise Is called Cesario in Twelfth Night, thereās also
small details in the film which connects to Twelfth Night like Feste is a clown in Twelfth
Night it is used as a second name for someone in Sheās the man, there is a Pizza
Parlour named Cesarioās and the fact that Sebastian Violas Brother not her in disguise
goes to London. The Plot has obvious similarities Duke in Sheās The Man and The Duke
of Illyria are both in love with Characters named Olivia also the big relation is Viola
dressing up as her twin brother like the Viola in Twelfth Night does and in the end Olivia
ends up with Violas Twin brother by mistake in both stories and Viola ends up with
Duke/The Duke of Illyria. Intertextuality is used a lot in Romantic comedies you see a lot
of similar things like the typical Airport scene where the boy realises heās made a
mistake and runs to stop the girl getting on the plane at the very last minute or a very
similar airport scene this is used in films like Love actually, The proposal, Sweet home
Alabama and Valentines day these are ones I can think of off the top of my head there is
probably a lot more, then thereās things likes high school settings with the evil head
teacher this has been used in films like The breakfast club, Ferris butlers day off and
Back to the future, also Nerdy girl gets a make over scene this has been used in Sheās
all that and John tucker must die, Romantic comedies always have the same plot where
boy gets the girl or the best friends realise they were meant to be etc. Another romantic
comedy Clueless was based on Jane Austinās novel Emma. You could say Not another
teen movie used Intertextuality because it referenced so many cliques in Romantic
comedies it has the airport scene where you actually see Molly Ringwald giving the girl
her plane ticket and they also have the breakfast club scene with the same actor who
played the head teacher in the original film plays the same character but in Not another
teen movie.
The left picture is Paul
Gleason from The
Breakfast club (1985) and
the picture on the right is
Paul Gleason from the
same scene re-enacted in
Not another teen movie
(2001)
Star Theory is when you see a certain actor/actress in a film and that is what attracts you
5. going to London for a couple weeks and thatās when you see that sheās going to pretend
to be him, you then see Viola dressed as her brother meeting Duke who she is
roommates with heās the typical good looking guy whoās having trouble speaking to
Olivia who is the pretty girly girl, he asks Viola (Sebastian) to help, this shows to two
main characters and then it goes on to tell you that Duke ends up liking Viola and it all
gets confusing from there. The setting is obviously a school with the football team and
the dorm rooms it also shows cheerleaders the stereotypical thing to see this could also
be classed as iconography like the lockers and the head teacher and the prom event,
technical and audio codes there is a song playing in the background throughout which is
a upbeat song which you would normally hear in high school movies and a narrator who
explains the whole story and every now and then audio from the actual movie itself.
The third trailer Iām going to analyse is Sixteen candles the first character introduced is
Samantha the main character sat next to the geeky character on the school bus as he
tryās to flirt with her, then the narrator says āthis is Samantha bakerā giving her a name
then it also tells you that it her birthday, it also shows you a scene where sheās talking to
her grandparents who are playing the embarrassing ones when they make a joke. It also
introduces you to the good looking character her love interest Jake this shows that its
going to me a love story and also there are loads of jokes made, iconography in the
trailer are things like school bus, the typical geek looking characters the good looking
guy and the quiet shy girl these are important they make the genre when they are all
looked at together, the setting is in a high school where they have the high school dance
and then thereās also a wedding scene. Then lastly there is technical and audio codes
throughout the trailer there is a mans voice narrating the whole thing he introduces
characters tells you a bit about the story and also some of the actual film audio is played.
6. Media literacy is when you see adverts about films and promotional things for example
there is so many websites you can find information like Facebook, twitter, YouTube,
Tumblr etc these give people information on new films, twitter has a feature that puts
promotional tweets onto your timeline every now and then one that stood out was a
promotional tweet for a new film called The Duff which is a romantic comedy same as
my chosen genre its based in a high school the tweet appeared on my timeline with a
link to the trailer on YouTube another example of how people get their product brought
to peoples attention using both twitter and YouTube together, With todayās websites
every new film being released with most definitely have a Facebook, twitter, YouTube,
Tumblr and plenty of other accounts stretching out to everyone to create an audience,
because of the amount of people using these platforms all different ages can see these
promotions, Iām guilty of checking out a new film from seeing the trailer on the homepage
of YouTube or a tweet about it I see more online than I do on TV after looking into
Cinderella I saw all the websites about the film before I even watched the advert on TV
which is a good example of how having platforms like this helps boosts audience.
Personally I find out about films online especially YouTube if I see a film I might be
interested in on the homepage I will watch the trailer, even being told about a new film
coming out YouTube and all the other platforms are there so I can look into new films
without having these social media websites it would be harder for people to find out
about films coming out unless they went cinema a lot or watched a lot of TV, because of
social media and how popular it is it lets companies who want to promote their products
give them a could chance of getting an audience.
7. Active Spectatorship is the way audience reacts to different films, some people can
watch a film and accept the story and not even think about it others think way to much
into it and think about it differently, it is impossible to say that a film will have the same
impact on every single person watching because of how different the audience is and
also that a film will be read or understood by each person in the same way. Some
people might see a message in the film and some watch it not even aware that itās a
possibility, for example in Titanic the scene where Jack dies itās all set up and has the
music and the lighting all to add to the sadness of the scene this is the director trying to
get a reaction from the audience most people agree that this scene is sad, another film
is Pulp fiction because it is shot in non-linear this makes the audience try and mix up the
scenes in their head to try and get the correct timeline, a lot of people might not agree
with having the timeline like another person, Films do not just have an effect on
audiences but also audiences can have an effect on films, for example a fandom, Fans
are people who love a particular film, genre, character or star and they share with other
people this creates a fandom people might come together to discuss a film they like a an
actor/actress they like, also people who would spend money on merchandise for a
8. particular film it can also inspire people to start media careers. A lot of conventions are
held to celebrate films and bring fans together this is more in the action adventure genre
or horror genre things like comic con which celebrates comic books and TV series casts
go there to do panels and interact with fans itās a chance to see you favorite
actor/actress in person, social media is a big part of fandoms when it comes to films, a
lot of people go onto Tumblr where fans can make GIFs and images and put their
favorite quotes onto their blog and share with other fans, they might get a personal
connection to their favorite characters stories it depends on how someone views the film,
whereas other people will watch a film and just enjoy the story and not want to become
fanatic about it. You canāt really become a fan over my chosen genre like create a
massive fandom unless the films have more than one. A way people relate to this genre
is how relatable is itās based on real life events some films can be about getting married
others can be going through high school and some just be about a relationship but
people can watch these and relate but also can have a laugh watching them like the film
bridesmaids which is a romantic comedy some people might watch this and see
something that might of happened to them like when their friend got married other
people may of never experienced it and still enjoy it just the same these are two different
reactions to the film.
Reception Theory was created by Stuart Hall its how we react to film based on age,
gender, social class and ethnicity, there is the contextual which is involving or depending
on a context and then there is textual which is relating to or conforming to a text or texts.
Reception theory argues that contextual factors more than ones influence the way the
spectator views the film elements of the identity of the viewer, in which place you view
the film like your home or in the cinema, also if the film sparks the interest from the
viewer by the genre, franchise, star theory or the Laceyās repertoire of elements and also
social, historical and political issues or their beliefs. Stuart Hall has different types of
ādecodingā text there is preferred, negotiated and oppositional. Preferred is how the
producer wants the audience to view the media text they agree with the message is it
conveying. Negotiated a compromise between the preferred and oppositional readings
the audience understanding and agree with the text but disagree with other areas they
have their own views on and oppositional the audience rejects the encoded meaning
and creates their own meaning for the text they fully disagree with the message being
submitted. My thoughts towards romantic comedies/ why I chose it as my genre, I
personally think that that most of them a based on true events with some exaggeration
for example Juno its about a teenage pregnancy or Clueless about a popular girl going
through high school and Bridesmaids about someone getting married I like comedy films
because watching them can put you in a good mood also romantic comedies are
probably one of the most popular genres, I didnāt realize that most of the films I like were
romantic comedies and I wouldnāt class it as my favorite genre, it probably started from
Mean girls because when I was in high school it was one of my favorite films and most of
my friends favorite film, I was always curious with the whole American high school and
how different it was to English schools, I just enjoyed films like that because they are
teen films and relatable even recently I went to see The Duff the new film I wrote about
in the media literacy part again the film was funny and really relatable. I guess it just
started from there I watched more films under that genre and enjoyed them. Looking
back on what Stuart hall used especially age and gender films like these always have a
girl as their main character this relates to gender it would be more relatable to me and
also high school films like sixteen candles and sheās the man are all based around
people who are my age so thatās another thing that can be looked at its an obvious
reason as to why I would want to watch these films.
9. Iād say over all because the films I chose are quite old I wouldnāt of saw the marketing
campaign so I couldnāt really say if it has met my expectations, if I was to look at how
popular a film was and say it was the reason I chose to watch it I would definitely agree.
10. Iād say over all because the films I chose are quite old I wouldnāt of saw the marketing
campaign so I couldnāt really say if it has met my expectations, if I was to look at how
popular a film was and say it was the reason I chose to watch it I would definitely agree.